The crash happened as the bus was attempting to make room for a vehicle heading in the opposite direction along a narrow dirt road between Cochabamba and Sucre.

The bus slipped off the edge and tumbled down the side of a cliff 260 miles southeast of the Bolivian capital of La Paz, said an official with the regional police speaking on condition of anonymity according to official policy.

The driver was among those killed in the crash.

The injured were taken to hospitals, while five of the dead remained trapped in the wreckage. More deaths were possible given the severity of injuries, the official said.

A bus wreck in August killed 24 after the driver apparently backed over a cliff on another mountainous Bolivian road known as the “Highway of Death” for its frequent fatal crashes.

Deadly wrecks are common in the Andean region, usually involving inexpensive, unregulated buses traveling fast on poorly maintained mountain roads.